Facebook Out of Control?

I mean, I tried to ignore it. For seemingly years I had a login that didn't work and I couldn't find a way to fix. I kept hearing about it but knew it aimed mainly at the college crown crowd (which I am not), so I only kind of sort of paid any attention.

And then I played a bit with my profile so that it looked like I cared.

And here we are today. It seems that not a day goes by without a handful of new friend requests showing up. Months after I thought Facebook had peaked and it feels as thought its growing faster than ever.

Who are all these people?

One of these days, remind me to write about the collision course that Facebook and LinkedIn (profile) seem to be on... Or better yet, point me at some who has already done a good job of covering that. All I'll say for the moment that it seems to be getting easier to add folks on LinkedIn now that Facebook is becoming such a force.

Re Facebook vs. LinkedIn, I think the currently hot difference is Facebook's API. We're looking into using Facebook (through the API) to do a lot of things we'd otherwise have to build and integrate on our own servers, and it looks like we get some huge benefits by leveraging Facebook. Not 100% sure yet; still studying and planning. But from what I've see so far, it's going to give Facebook a huge advantage and perhaps even fulfill their promise to make it a "platform."

Facebook is more about your real-life friends connections, and at least in my case the rejection rate of "friending" requests has been higher than anywhere else.

I just don't want to contaminate my News Feed with news about people I've never met in my life, but who know me virtually through blog, e-mail list, etc. I am most likely not interested in the party they're attending in London, or event they're hosting in Boston.

On LinkedIn, on the other hand, it pays to be socially promiscuous and add pretty much anybody, since a random contact might become very valuable in job search, etc.

Jeremy,
There is a major shift happening here. Facebook is much more useful in many ways. I can see via a minifeed shared data from my friends network and you can actually make better connections is many ways with facebook.

I have used linkedin for a long time and rarely use it since facebook has many more use cases for me and the deluge of new applications that are being developed on the platform increase it's usefulness.

I have both a Facebook and LinkedIn account (as you may know, I work at LinkedIn). I use them for separate purposes; one as my social network and the other for my professional network and I'd like to keep it that way.

Interesting to see that LinkedIn is also opening up and letting developers use their api's to build apps - or at least saying it will in the coming months. Competition always leads to innovation. But can LinkedIn get the momentum that Facebook seems to have? I've been resisting using Facebook as a professional networking device but when people you work with add you what are you supposed to do? It's becoming a professional networking site whether some users like it or not.

why stop at facebook? these activities are a trivial pursuit regardless of the domain.

what draws people to list mundane trivial facts about themselves and attempt to forge meaningless connections with people they have never met (and will never meet) who likewise have cataloged the same mundane data points? anecdotally, i don't even see much potential for disposable sex in alumni networks spanning a continent.

"i went to blah U, i work for wingding corp. i like listing high-brow books i have never actually read and listening only to obscure music. here is a picture of me drinking (taken before i got fat). good times!! wooo-hoo!"

in real life, people who spend their time engaging in activities like this are often referred to as "airheads".

there's no "there" there. fascination turns to boredom turns to a chore. at least people playing WoW can claim to be engaging in some...activity of some kind. i predict a massive die-off in all of these networks, following on the heels of the now-obvious massive blogging die-off. sadly those who have dedicated the best years of their lives to populating databases will only discover the irreparable harm done to their real social lives when it is far too late to fit into the old jeans.

Interesting thread! I think the march towards hyperconnectivity has to undergo a shakedown at some point... :)

There's no question that Facebook has an appeal and fulfills a need. It's success lies in its ability to deliver 'mini-buzzes' (and lots of them), each time something new appears in your profile. Not unlike the buzz you used to get back when email was new and every new item in your inbox was from someone you cared about (remember that?).

The problem is that this is cheap thrills. Meaningful relationships are formed between people who know and trust each other, and Facebook's social networking mechanism is too crude to reflect how we organise our social groups in real life. Instead we gather empty friend requests and wonder why 600 friends is not quite enough.

Im a old sports jock. Too old for facebook as I think my 19 and 18 year old would freak. My Space? NOPE not a freak for 14 year olds.... I have all my rugby pals from around the world. And my 4 kids talk to me on zAthlete. My kids wont do Linkedin.... Z is a SN that lets me leverage the functions of others with my kids. etc....

on June 29, 2008 09:58 PM

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